Monday, November 23, 2009

Roadside food in BKK

i guess many people are skeptical as to whether there will be consequences after eating the roadside food in Bangkok. i had my doubts last time, but since last year, when Cece and me adventurously tried our first roadside food, we were yummized (erm means addicted to yummy food) by what seemed like unhygenic roadside food.

Contrary to the many thoughts of the terrible after effects in consuming these food, they are in fact very delicious, cheap, and no bad side effects having consumed them. it is definitely as authentic as one can get to thai food. i really enjoyed my road side meals this trip.

it's not difficult to know where the good food places are, you can always find either a queue or many people waiting to be seated etc. it's a disadvantage not being able to speak thai, but the locals can manage with simple english. anyway, whatever it is, you just need to point to whatever you fancy. afterall, pointing is an universal sign language.

i was staying at Baiyoke Boutique hotel and just outside is the Patunam night market. Along with night market of bargain items, people also need to eat. as such, simple food like these actually are the highlight for the night market walkabout if you dare to try.

this grilled fish was covered with salt when it was bbqing by the hot charcoal. it's damn popular coz the locals actually sit by the tables and order like one fish per pax. the grill was always filled with the fish and it looked so darn mouth watering good and i just had to buy it. At only 50 Baht (equivalent to SGD 2.10) it's yummiliciously good. the meat is fresh coz it is easily detached from the bones, juicy and tender and you know what, it's has this awesome sweetness which i have never tasted in a fish for a very long time. MUST BUY! by the way, it is not salty if you don't eat the skin. anyway, no one eats the skin coz it's scaly.

if i remember correctly, they call this phad thai. it's similar to our fried kway teow, except it is tastier, more spicy and sweet and yummy with no frills ingredients. it looked very little when the 'chef' was cooking it, but it came up to a huge packet. it's loaded with peanuts, bean sprouts, green onions, tao kua and that's about it. but it's so tasty and appetising when i drizzled it with the calamasi. shiok and it costs only 30 baht!

this is the pork kway teow soup which cost only 30 baht. for this mere sum of money, you get a generous amount of smooth kway teow. the soup was awesome. so sweet and so savoury. it's delish stock! i found out that the cook had put radish in the soup as well. the pork slices were very tender and had just enough fats to make it really delish. the pork balls, so firm, bouncy and crunchy. the pork liver even after 'swimming' in the soup for quite sometime, was still soft and tender. this is really one of my favourite roadside dish and will try whenever i am there! If you are crazy about spicy, put the chili powder into the dish and definitely spice it up lots!

for 25 baht per 100g, there are a variety of fried items you can choose from. from small sized prawns, to pork ribs, to chicken gizzard etc, the sinful fried food whilst it is cooking sure catches not only ones visual attention but smell and sound. haha, it's damn good and very worth it. good to have it with a can of beer which obviously is so darn cheap in bkk. excellent side dish!!

the above was dinner for our first night there when we touched down and headed out to look for food.

another night when we returned from central world, the cab drove by this row of street side stall selling these really huge fish. we decided to try it on friday night before we flew off the next day.

i'm not sure if you can resist this, but i sure couldnt. it looked really darn good with the fish grilling on this hot stove of charcoal. by the way, the fish were alive when they were being put on to the stove, that's how fresh this was. however, it wasn't really as good as the earlier fish we had coz this one had too many bones and the meat was a tad tougher. this cost 120 baht. we ordered other dishes as well, but coz my cam ran out of battery, the rest were stored in my hp.

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Myself

Talkative.
Easily warm up to people who send out good vibes, good listener,
Alcohol binger,
have a particular liking for bamboo and maple trees and also white fluffy clouds,
Likes travelling,
Super crappy at times but can churn out the weirdest philosophical thoughts when high on alcohol,
Become super excited when there's a major gossip, issue or person to bitch about.
Maybe insensitive to certain things or people, but that's because they dont know me well enough to realise that i don't mean it or that i dislike them as such i cannot be bothered.
Bitchy.
Crappy.
Mean.
Contradicting.
Lazy.
Stubborn.
Responsible.
Loyal.
Creative copycat. (duh)
Vain.
Sloppy.
Cheapo shopaholic.
Allergic to chocolate-i get sore throat after eating them.
Imaginative.
Fickle minded.
Long winded.
Risk adverse.
Always curious - can ask the weirdest (translate: most stupid) questions at the weirdest time.
Think messy is actually organised.
Full of rubbish.
Anime and manga junkie.
Sweet.
Thoughful.
Lame.
Coffee makes me sleepy.